Hello all!
Back from China, and let me say that it was a fabulous experience. Traveled to Shanghai and Xi’an, but didn’t make it to Beijing. Oh well, maybe next time. 
In any case, you can read up on all the things I learned on my trip here: What I Learned in China.
Didn’t get the chance to visit any of China’s circus schools, but I did see a child street contortionist. Note: doing contortion before you finish growing can be terrible for your spine. In Chinese circus schools, they bend kids in all sorts of ways prematurely. That’s why the kids are so flexible, but it’s also why they rarely grow taller than 5 feet…
but that’s another story completely…
Rope Tricks
What I really wanted to mention is that I finally got some pictures! No, not from the China trip (t’will be a while before I have those). I got some pictures from my very first escape act!
A few months ago, I was over at a friend’s place in Nantucket. If you aren’t familiar, Nantucket is a little island off Massachusetts that is pretty awesome. They do a lot of fishing and sailing and such over there, so my friend was very familiar with the various knots that sailor use (being a sailor himself). And as he was demonstrating some of these knots, I asked if he’d ever used them to tie anyone up before.
Naturally, he was caught a bit off guard. He said he hadn’t, but he could probably do it pretty easily. So, being the circus artist that I am, I asked if he would be willing to tie me up to see if I could get out of it. Luckily for me, he agreed! Albeit, somewhat reluctantly.
I’d picked up some techniques from escape artists, and really wanted to see if they would actually work. I figured, “When am I going to have another opportunity to ask a friend who knows a whole lot about knots to tie me up?” And so we got a chair, got some rope, and commenced the tying.
The toughest part was sitting still all that time trying to keep my muscles tense (as is the strategy for escape). However, once the knots were all tied, it only took me about 2 minutes to wriggle myself out.
Who knows, I might add the act to my repertoire (so long as I have someone around who can do the tying).
I only got a few pictures of the tying process, but you can see them all on the Media Page.
Until next time!
Related posts:
- Obsession Show!
- Faneuil Hall Visit, Day 3
- Gumbo Yaya Pictures Posted
- Introducing: Lil’ Saint!
- Update: A Busy, But Funfilled Weekend
Tags: China, Escape Act, Rope
